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CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 186 the chart, on any object. As a matter of fact, clicking a data point will turn the data labels on only for the series of which on which you’ve clicked, so you’re actually better off not clicking directly on the data themselves.) However, data labels can congest the chart if the data points are numerous (Figure 5-53): Figure 5–53. Information overload: An excess of data labels You’ll think twice about handing that one to your boss. Remember, though, that you can improve the scenario by recoloring and/or changing the size of the numbers. Take any of the prescribed routes to the chart formatting options, and make the appropriate changes. Be advised, though, that you’ll have to click on each data series and make the changes to each series individually. The Data Table option, already portrayed in Figure 5-36, presents all the data giving rise to the chart. It’s a greedy object, however, and by implementing this option you may find yourself looking at something like this (Figure 5-54): Figure 5–54. Bet you didn’t know George was two syllables Needs work, as they say. Widening the chart would do wonders. CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 187 Axes to Grind The Axes button group allows you to redraw certain aspects of the Horizontal and Vertical Axis (Figure 5- 55): Figure 5–55. The Axes button group The Vertical Axis options are particularly important. What’s called the Primary Horizontal Axis allows you to flip the order of your Horizontal Axis labels, and also throw the Vertical Axis to the right edge of the chart (Figure 5-56): Figure 5–56. Right-handed Vertical Axis But when your axis works with numerical data, as is the case with the Primary Vertical Axis, the options look like this (Figure 5-57): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 188 Figure 5–57. The Primary Vertical Axis option The Show Axis in… selections enable you to show the axis data in different orders of magnitudes, something you may find useful when you’re working with large numbers. Thus a simple salary chart such as this would read originally (Figure 5-58): Figure 5–58. Bet John has an expense account, too But if I select Show Axis in Thousands, it would look like this (Figure 5-59): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 189 Figure 5–59. The Vertical Axis—same values, different look. Note the axis label. The numbers are trimmed, even though they continue to represent the data in thousands. That is, the 120 on the axis stands for 120 thousand. But clicking More Primary Vertical Axis Options… calls up a particularly important dialog box, and we’ll review some of its options (Figure 5-60): Figure 5–60. The Format Axis dialog box. Suppose I wanted to line-chart the hypothetical closing values of the Dow Jones index for one week (Figure 5-61): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 190 Figure 5–61. A week’s worth of stock averages Excel will yield, for starters, Figure 5-62: Figure 5–62. Note the values in the Vertical Axis That minimum value—10200—was chosen by Excel, based on its reading of the chart data. But let me enter 0 as the lowest chart value, and the chart looks like this (Figure 5-63): Download From Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com> CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 191 Figure 5–63. Same data, different Vertical Axis starting point And that makes the fluctuation in the closing prices look a lot less dramatic. It’s a classic charting issue. Major Unit enables you to change the numeric interval Excel has selected for the Vertical Axis. In our test-grade chart, the Excel-chosen interval for the grades is 20—0, 20, 40, 60, etc. Enter a Major Unit of 10 to our grade data, and you get (Figure 5-64): Figure 5–64. The grades represented in intervals of 10 Note that the Horizontal Gridlines in the plot area are drawn to this interval. Minor Unit lets the user choose an additional, smaller axis interval that can supplement the major unit. But gridlines associated with the minor unit don’t appear on the chart by default, a point that takes us to…. The Gridlines option, which enables you to turn on the minor unit gridlines as well. Note in Figure 5-60 the minor unit on our Dow Jones chart is set by default at 4000. If we work with that interval and select Gridlines: Major and Minor Gridlines, we’ll see (Figure 5-65): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 192 Figure 5–65. Major and minor scales: Turning on the minor unit gridlines (Note: the Gridlines command here is not to be confused with the Gridlines command on the Page Layout tab, coming in Chapter 9). And just by way of brief introduction, take note of the Analysis button group. Clicking these options will, among other things, let you supplement a chart with a trendline drawn atop the chart data, which tries to portray the trajectory of the data you’re charting (Figure 5-66): Figure 5–66. Follow the trend: The DJ data accompanied by a trendline The Analysis group also lets you depict the likely degree of error in a series of values drawn from a sample, and the like. CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 193 The Format Tab—Getting Your Objects in Shape This is probably the easiest Chart tab to figure out, the one whose options can be learned easily through click-this-button experimentation. The Tab offers a medley of ways to color and slightly reshape any chart object on which you click, with its options keyed to that object. Thus if you click on a chart plot area, the Shape Styles drop-down menu (when completely revealed) offers this (Figure 5-67): Figure 5–67. The Shape of styles to come Click an option and the plot area takes on the selected color and border effect. The Shape Fill and Shape Outline buttons are really extensions of Shape Styles, serving up more fill color and border shaping options. The Shape Effects button makes additional shape embellishments available. Thus click on a chart plot area, and this Shape Effects potpourri appears (Figure 5-68): Figure 5–68. Special effects: Shape effects options Clicking any arrow above reveals still more options. The WordArt Styles group and its associated Text Fill, Text Outline, and Text Effects options can reformat any selected text—be it in titles, axes, or legends (Figure 5-69): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 194 Figure 5–69. Word Art: Shape effects for text Note that as indicated earlier, the Format tab has the same Format Selection button on the far left of its ribbon that you’ll find on the Layout tab. Sparklines: Mini-Charts with Big Impact It’s possible that no new feature of Excel 2010 has, uh,—sparked—more advance publicity than Sparklines, the brainchild of renowned graphics guru Edward Tufte. Sparklines aren’t exactly new, having been marketed for several years by an array of providers; but once Excel decided to absorb the product into its interface, it was time to raise an eyebrow or two in the spreadsheet community. Sparklines are charts of a special sort. Unlike the charts we’ve described to date—objects which occupy a layer atop the worksheet, as if they were laminated over it—Sparklines are positioned in worksheet cells, just as any other data are. They have addresses; and thus it’s perfectly reasonable to refer to the Sparkline in cell I14—something you can’t say about a conventional Excel chart. And the fact is we’ve already encountered Sparklines—way, way, back in Chapter One, when we first trotted out that grading worksheet (Figure 5-70): CHAPTER 5 ■ THE STUFF OF LEGEND—CHARTING IN EXCEL 195 Figure 5–70. Sparklines—mini line charts Eyes misting with nostalgia? Sentiment aside, those yellow cells contain Sparklines. Apart from their placement in specific cells, Sparklines differ from conventional Excel charts in some other important ways: • They contain no textual information—no titles, axis data, or legends. • They can only characterize one data series at a time. • They permit far fewer formatting options. Thus in view of these limitations, you’re likely ready to ask what’s the up side—that is, why turn to a Sparkline when a typical Excel chart seems to offer so much more? The answer is that Sparklines can easily fill a range of cells with their data-capturing magic, allowing for numerous, concise charts keyed individually to a large span of columns or rows—like our gradebook. As such, they give a quick, illustrative, graphic read on your data. So let’s see how Sparklines work. We can return to our set of grades, entered in cells C8:I20. Note this range includes the class averages as well as the Student name in C9 I warned you about earlier this chapter (Figure 5-71): [...]... Filter handles, a new format of Excel s choosing, and a Table Tools tab that stakes the top of the worksheet, right above the Design tab (Figure 6 35): Figure 6 36 The Table Tools tab—rather alliterative, isn’t it? Click the tab and click one of the down arrows by Table Styles (Figure 6 36) : 220 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 37 Table Styles: No shortage of... names (Figure 6 19): 211 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 20 Group shot: Filtering for two students Or for an alternative but related example, if we had a database of students and their majors, for instance (Figure 6 20): Figure 6 21 Ringo a Lit major? What a concept We could filter by major, and say, click on Soc We’d get (Figure 6 21): Figure 6 22 Singling out... greater than (Figure 6 23): Figure 6 24 Looking for all scores above 75 213 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 2 Then just type 75 in the field alongside “is greater than” and click OK The records should be filtered as per your instruction (Figure 6 24): Figure 6 25 Test scores above 75—for exam 2 Note that the Greater Than dialog box we summoned in Figure 6 23 is really the... only Dorothy’s data, and hence, need to see only her information onscreen (Figure 6 16) Figure 6 17 Filtered data—you may need to see Dorothy’s data alone 210 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Keeping all that in mind, click the down arrow alongside Student You’ll see (Figure 6 17): Figure 6 18 The filter drop-down menu Among other things, you’re presented with a list of... initial, or major To demonstrate, enter this small database in cells J11:L17 (it should go without saying allthis works with much larger databases, too) (Figure 6 6) : 204 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 6 Note the two Ed Jones entries The duplicate data are clear—but I hear some murmuring in the back rows The eagle-eyed among you are whispering about the fact that,... under 65 Excel s AutoFilter does just this kind thing, and it’s even easier than sorting It lets you identify which data you want to see with a couple of clicks, and in a couple of seconds Let’s try out AutoFilter on our student gradebook Just click anywhere among the data, click the Data tab, and click Filter (Figure 6 15): 209 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 15... way of a different example, we had wanted to filter all the students who had scored less than 65 in exam 4, we could have entered this in N9:N10 instead (Figure 6 27): 215 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 28 Not Dean’s List Material: A criterion for filtering grades below 65 on exam 4 where 4 represents that exam’s field name Note, without getting too carried away,... like a database In Excel, it could start looking like this (Figure 6 1): Figure 6 1 A basic Excel database That all sounds and looks good to me; but as a terminological matter Excel isn’t always so sure Microsoft has had some difficulty making up its mind about exactly what it means by the term database, though you’re not likely to lose any sleep over the matter, and you shouldn’t How Microsoft Access... all the numbers in the range greater than 100 red, and all those less than 50 green, you can sort the green cells before the red (Figure 6 9): Figure 6 9 Sorting by color It’s done on more than just socks 2 06 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 The On top/bottom options are the color-ordering equivalents of A-Z and Z-A There’s no inherent ascending or descending color order,... because we want these results to occupy a place on the worksheet that is independent of the original gradebook data in C9:I20; so in cells K9:L9 we’ll enter (Figure 6 29): 2 16 CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 Figure 6 30 Where our results should appear because, as per our introduction to this exercise, these are the names of the only two fields for which we want to see the . allthis works with much larger databases, too) (Figure 6 6) : CHAPTER 6 ■ SETTING THE TABLE: DATABASE FEATURES OF EXCEL 2010 205 Figure 6 6. Note the two Ed Jones entries. The duplicate data. and other Excel capabilities—the world of Excel databases. Now go out there and cell those charts. C H A P T E R 6 ■ ■ ■ 201 Setting the Table: Database Features of Excel 2010 By now. database. In Excel, it could start looking like this ( Figure 6 1): Figure 6 1. A basic Excel database That all sounds and looks good to me; but as a terminological matter Excel isn’t always